In CATV nodes, such as Scientific-Atlanta's Gainmaker® node, optical devices such as transmitters and receivers use attenuator pads which change the power level of RF signals. Typically these known attenuator pads are round as shown in FIG. 1. However, some optical devices such as a launch amplifier use square attenuator pads as shown in FIG. 2. Both the round and square attenuator pads have three pins for electrically and mechanically coupling the attenuator pads to a printed circuit board. However, the three pins of the square attenuator pad are aligned with one another in a straight line whereas the three pins of the round attenuator are arranged in a triangular pattern. Therefore, the round and square attenuators have different footprints and necessarily fit into different sockets on a printed circuit board.
FIG. 3 illustrates a pad guide for use with the round attenuator pad of FIG. 1. The pad guide of FIG. 3 preferably has an opening therethrough that has an inner diameter that corresponds with the outer diameter of the round attenuator pad of FIG. 1. However, the opening through some pad guides only extends partially through the center of these pad guides, but then allows the three pins of the round attenuator pad to extend through the bottom of the pad guide to the exterior of the pad guide.
Pad guides also typically include resilient hooked portions or prongs which extend outward from the bottom of the pad guide. The resilient hooked portions or prongs allow the pad guide to be mechanically mounted to a printer circuit board that has openings therethrough which correspond with each of the hooked portions. The manner in which the hooked portions extend into the openings in the printed circuit in order to mechanically mount the pad guide board may be referred to as a snap or friction fit. Pad guide may be configured differently to include other means for mounting to the printed circuit board. For example, any number of prongs may be used and an opening in a printed circuit board may be configured to accommodate more than one prong.